Hunt for Bigfoot finds something even better

By GERRY GALIPAULT

Saturday

Apr 12, 2008 at 2:08 AM

Watching "Not Your Typical Bigfoot Movie" could bring one of two reactions, or both.

First, you will get the sense that director Jay Delaney and his crew are respectful and nonjudgmental in telling the stories of Dallas Gilbert and Wayne Burton, longtime friends who have gathered video footage and photographs of what they say is Sasquatch roaming the woods surrounding their native Portsmouth, Ohio.

"It's different from some documentaries," Delaney said, "because I really tried to take a vérité approach and as much as possible be the fly on the wall.

"I tried to let the story come from them, and that's probably why it took a year to edit it. I had 62 hours of footage."

Second, you may come away from the film feeling sorry for Gilbert and Burton, whose friendship is tested when their Bigfoot research is called into question. Both also are struggling financially in an economically depressed Ohio River city. Life, for them, has not been easy.

Delaney, who grew up in a town north of Portsmouth, first touched on Gilbert and Burton in his 2001 short film "American Dream," but he always wanted to dig deeper into their story.

After living in Sarasota in 2004-05 and working in the film industry in New York for six months, he moved back to southern Ohio for the sole purpose of making "Not Your Bigfoot Movie."

"I guess I wanted there to be a certain sense of sympathy" for Gilbert and Burton, said Delaney, who now attends Stetson Law School in St. Petersburg. "But I wanted there to be empathy as well, to where after you're exposed to their world and their lives, I want people to find a connection with them.

"Something about this struggle that they face is universal. Like most of us, they're just trying to find meaning in life. So much of their meaning as people is wrapped up in their identities as Bigfoot researchers."

Gilbert and Burton do not just say that they believe in Bigfoot and have seen it, they seek it out. They go into the woods, camera in hand, and shout out to the apelike creature in a language they think it will understand.

"Here's the thing," Delaney said. "I lived in that part of the state from age 2 to 18. That area has had its share of heartbreaks, with the steel industry leaving. To me, it's inspiring how Dallas and Wayne take the heartache and somehow find the passion within themselves to keep searching for something, with a sense of adventure."